November

Knautia arvensis is an attractive native perennial herb of well drained grassland. It can be found throughout Europe in meadows, rough pasture, hedgerows and verges. Though it is by nature a perennial, it will flower and produce seed the first year if grown as an annual, either autumn or spring sown.

'Kermesina' is an attractive and popular cultivar of Iris versicolor. Flowering from May through to July with claret-purple flowers with ruffled petals and bold purple veining. It may be grown in shallow standing water or moist shoreline soils and suitable to be grown in constantly moist humusy soils of a border.

Iris versicolor is one of the few species in garden cultivation. Although happiest at the waterside the plants will also perform well under average to moist border conditions. Flowering from May through to July, each stalk produces up to five violet-blue flowers with ruffled petals and bold purple veining.

Yellow Flag Iris is a common and widespread native plant in Britain. This good-looking plant is a wetland plant that is especially showy in bloom and has been transplanted into well-watered gardens all over the world.

Iris bulleyana is a classic species Iris from western China. It belongs to a small group of oriental species which are entirely hardy and are of great value to the gardener. The plants are successful in any moist garden soil. Flowering from June to July, the blooms with mid purple flowers and dark purple veins.

Based on hybrids bred by the doyenne of the Hellebore world, Helen Ballard, these must be some of the finest and most beautiful of the race we have to offer. Large flowers are produced in a variety of colours from dark purple to white - often extravagantly mottled and marked.

Hellebore 'Blackthorn Strain' is a carefully selected seed strain, with delicate pink flowers backed with pink and green, the stems, petioles and often the anthers are an enchanting ripe berry rose. The saw-toothed foliage is pewter-blue above, burgundy-grey beneath.

A beautiful, robust ground cover variety of the every popular Geranium sanguineum; ‘Vision Violet’ produces masses of large luminescent violet flowers from early spring to summer. The blooms cover this compact, mounding plant with intricately cut leaves.

‘Vision Light Pink’ produces masses of large luminescent light pink flowers with red veins from early spring through to late summer. This long-lived, drought-tolerant perennial is useful as a small scale groundcover and in mixed borders. Use it in rock gardens, stone walls or even in container plantings.

Geranium pyrenaicum is a European species and well known for being one of the most floriferous of Geraniums. 'Summer Snow' is an easy to grow, yet hard to find white flowered cultivar which produces profuse quantities of white flowers each with deeply notched petals.

"Splish Splash" is a fascinating, rare and prized border plant and one of the most beautiful, striking and unusual perennial geraniums. Very easy to grow, the clumps of divided foliage are topped with mauve-blue splashes and flecks on pure white petals, each petal appearing to be individually designed and painted.

'Dark Reiter’, is a fairly new cultivar originating from 'Victor Reiter' whose namesake was the legendary California nurseryman. What sets this plant apart is the new leaves that emerge a light maroon colour then fade to a purple-flushed deep green, it produces violet-blue flowers in spring.

Geranium 'Orchid Blue' is a simply stunning plant, producing clusters of saucer shaped flowers of a rarely seen shade of pure orchid-blue, each with purple-violet veins. This new-on-the-scene plant soon spreads to form low hummocks of deeply cut soft green, leaves.

Hardy geraniums are undoubtedly one of the most popular groups of plants. Today’s hybrids are the modern flag bearers, they are beautiful, reliable and endlessly various produces jewel-tone, saucer-shape flowers for months at a time. Exceptionally good value this mix always contain a few real rarities.

What spring garden would be complete without a bed of delightful, sweet-scented Wallflowers, harbingers of warmer weather to come? “Ivory-White” is a fabulous, yet hard to find form. A compact variety with a bushy habit which is ideal as an underplanting to tulips and other spring bulbs.

Erysimum (formerly Cheiranthus) cheiri ‘Fire King' is another old and tried variety, with striking, flame-like, glowing orange-scarlet flowers. A compact variety with a bushy habit and a rich fragrance, they will supply the household with an abundance of cut flowers for many weeks.

‘Fair Lady Mixed' is a classic tried and trusted variety. Reliably hardy, this uniform mixture blooms in a wide range of colours, both pastels and bright colours and includes the more unusual dusky-pink shades. This marvellous; fragrant, floriferous flower is extremely easy to grow and very rewarding.